The Imposter DVD box set: unbelievable

The Imposter is documentary of Bart Layton, but in fact, is a movie.

Nicholas Barclay disappeared from his family home in San Antonio, Texas at the tender age of thirteen. Three years and four months later, an unaccompanied 16-year-old boy is found in France. When circumstances lead French authorities to believe he is Nicholas Barclay, he’s swiftly returned to a concerned family who welcome him all too easily. However, as the FBI and a sole private investigator notice subtle differences that, for some reason, have been overlooked by the family, it soon becomes clear that so-called Nicholas Barclay is in fact impostor Frédéric Bourdin (portrayed in interviews by Bourdin himself and in dramatisations by actor Adam O’Brian).

The real-life story of Bourdain who was, at the time of his eventual imprisonment, dubbed by many sources “The Chameleon”, The Imposter DVD box set mixes a concoction of styles and elements synonymous with the documentary genre in bold and interesting new ways. It’s a technique that, through writer and director Bart Layton’s meticulous attention-to-detail and obvious personal curiosity in the horrifying situation, creates an intoxicating atmosphere in which the audience is entirely immersed from start to finish.

In lesser hands, such technique might feel like a cheat. After all, documentaries are about establishing the truth, however ugly, not colluding in a fantasist’s beautiful cruelties.

But this is a documentary about fabricating stories, the allure of deception and how quickly the facts can vanish into the ether.

The effect of Layton’s efforts is to give credence to each of the claimants, so it’s possible to feel sorry for Frédéric even as the horrendous weight of his actions hits home.

Wonderful movie: Buy This Waltz DVD box set

Having known the movie-Take This Waltz DVD box set is that I watched its Theatrical Trailer at theater. All of lens in the movie and the unique personal performance of Michelle Williams remind me of another film, the Blue Valentine’s Day that really leave me deep impression.

The film is seen almost entirely from the point of view of Margot, a 28-year-old freelance journalist, and Michelle Williams, one of the cinema's most versatile performers (her recent roles have included a troubled working-class woman in Blue Valentine, Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn and a pioneer wife in the realistic western Meek's Cutoff) brings an extraordinary depth and complexity to the character.

She's been married for five years to Lou (Seth Rogen touching in one of his more serious films), a cheerful, humorous, slightly overweight cook currently writing a book on different ways of preparing chicken, and they live in the attractive Portugal Village in downtown Toronto, a distinctively old-fashioned, quasi-bohemian area far removed in tone from the gleaming skyscrapers that define the appearance of Canada's largest and most prosperous city.

The movie proceeds by parallel events that echo each other – jokily conducted sex with Lou, for instance, is followed shortly thereafter by truly arousing virtual sex with Daniel who sits in a bar describing in erotic detail his desire for Margot. The reality of modern Toronto is contrasted with the romanticism of the idyllic recreated Nova Scotia, and the allure of the latter provokes Margot into taking the momentous decision to follow the compass of her uncertain heart.

To sum up, the movie is truthful and honest. Like the Cohen song, Polley's movie touches on familiar feelings and evokes common experiences in a way that goes beyond what can be explained. Needless to say, at the silent afternoon, watch the kind of movie, it’s very enjoyable. 

Laurence Anyways DVD box set, 2012

Laurence Anyways in 2012 is a highly unconventional romance and the quirk of the story.

We follow Laurence Alia (Melvil Poupaud) and Fred Belair (Suzanne Clément), a happy couple whose relationship takes a turn after Laurence announces his wish to become a woman. While he faces problems with his decision from work and family, Fred struggles under the pressure of other’s opinions, and confusion over her own desires in life. Their relationship eventually falls apart, but their unresolved issues and lingering love for each other sends them on a tumultuous journey that spans a decade.

Over the ten year period that unravels through Dolan’s expansive narrative (the run time clocks in at a hefty, yet involving 161 minutes), Laurence and Fred drift in and out of one another’s lives and encounter many issues, from prejudice (a scene in which Fred stands up to a nosey waitress in a small-town café is among the film’s best) to new relationships and sorrowful isolation. It’s a time period that allows for such cumbrous issues to be probed in thorough fashion, as Laurence’s mindset contradicts with those on the outside. Over the decade, the love between Fred and Laurence continues to haunt them and it is only a matter of time before they meet again.

As you would expect from Dolan, Laurence Anyways DVD box set is art directed up the wazoo. He mixes up contemporary and retro music video tableau with youthful vigour and energy. The club scenes are a hot mess of shocking pinks and neon blues. And in a couple of explicit 80s homages, he really does give great euro-ponce.  It will be fantastically irritating if you aren’t attuned to the sensibility. If you are, various scenes will leave you swooning with delight.

Conversations with Other Women DVD box set: with love

In "Conversations With Other Women" Bonham Carter plays an unnamed woman who has traveled from England to New York City to serve as a bridesmaid at a wedding where she knows precious few of the participants. Aaron Eckhart, playing a wedding guest, strikes up a conversation with her. Soon we realize these two are old flames with new lives: He now lives with a much younger dancer, she with a cardiologist many years her elder.

Woman and Man (that's how they're billed--yeeesh) gingerly explore the possibility of a sexual reconnection. Despite this suspense, "Conversations With Other Women" DVD box set plops along like a mediocre one-act play with a difference.

The two don't have much time; the woman's flight leaves at dawn. They repair to her hotel room where their bittersweet, often humorous verbal dance continues with a break for the inevitable catch-up sex. On the page, this all sounds corny. But, as remembrances layer one upon the other, this relationship takes on the darkness and depth of an epic love. Screenwriter Gabrielle Zavin freshens up stale love story conventions, and does so the right way: By creating distinct, well rounded characters. We piece together, bit by bit, the circumstances of the woman fleeing their troubled affair for safe harbor in London, and what perhaps followed in the years following their breakup. At times, Zavin's scenes can feel stagy and amateurish, forcing her characters from one beat to another as each seeks to fill the decade-plus gap since they were last together.

Conversations is actually interested in the joys and pains of human relationships. Each of these films is about sensitive, intelligent adults negotiating with that least selfish of human ideals: Eternal Love. That’s why I liked about Conversations with Other Women. 

Trust DVD box set

Trust DVD box set begins innocuously enough, before turning into every parent’s worst nightmare and reminding us that innocence on the internet is hard to come by.

Trust is a story about a 14-year-old girl and a predatory pedophile as a series of repercussions in which rape is only the first, and possibly not the worst, tragedy to strike its naive and vulnerable victim. It’s easy to imagine how this story could have been exploited and dumber down. It works instead with intelligence and sympathy.

Annie (Liana Liberato) receives a laptop as a 14th birthday gift from her dad (Clive Owen). She’s something of a loner at school, and forms more meaningful attachments in online chatrooms — to Charlie, for instance, who claims to be her age, and seems to understand her so much better than anyone else.

One day Charlie admits he’s a little older and keeps chipping away at a huge, looming lie by confessing to smaller ones. Annie feels a sting of betrayal with each partial disclosure, but a baseline trust has been formed, and she’s still smitten enough to agree to a deeply unsettling date in a shopping mall. It’s obvious, in person, that he’s three times her age. And yet she is still so very nice.

The story is all too tortuous and complicated. Liana Liberato does such a poignant job of showing how, and why. She has three scenes in particular where her wounded feelings spill out in words of anguish, and they are so well-written and well-acted that they’re heartbreaking. All in all, this movie is powerfully emotional, yes, but also very perceptive. 

Bridget Jones’s Diary DVD box set: a healing classic comedy

As a huge fan of the books, I had incredibly high expectations of the movie. And now I watch the movie DVD box set with my partner at leisure time. Needless to say, `Bridget Jones's Diary' the movie worked very, very well.

Renee Zellweger is absolutely perfect as Bridget Jones. She has always been one of my favorite actresses and here, she totally displays Bridget's pathetic cuteness. Zellweger gained weight for this role, too, so she looks adorably plump. It's very, very hard to not fall in love with her the moment you see her at her family's Christmas party or drinking alone at home or listening to sad, Celine Dion music. (You have a heart of stone if you aren't moved to laughs or tears or pity for her.) I can't imagine anyone else playing Bridget Jones. Zellweger fits the role because she is very much normal and approachable.

The quality of the rest of the cast is also perfect. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth assume their roles as Bridget's potential suitors with a great deal of panache and hilarity. Grant, stuck with hair that will give him forever the look of a dandy highwayman, breaks away from his bumbling nervy Englishman style to play Daniel Cleaver, the serial shagger who runs the publishing house where Bridget works as a PR assistant. Cleaver is the kind of guy who walks into a room and assumes that every woman wants to take him to bed, and unfortunately for his ego his assumption proves to be correct. Bridget is putty in his hands and his wooing of her is one of the film's comedic high points.

In short, Bridget Jones's Diary DVD box set is a healing classic comedy at its best. Go see it.

W.E. DVD box set: Masterpiece

W.E., Madonna's new film, it seems based more on their mutual fascination with the awfulness of the thing they have done.

The movie indicates it was Edward who insisted they marry. Apparently so, he wanted to make a grotesque sacrifice in giving himself to this woman who after all was not that beautiful, not that young and not that irresistible. As the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, their marriage lasted from 1937 to 1972, and they were known above all for maintaining a facade of high style, harmony and no trace of regret. She was considered the epitome of chic and set a global standard with her clothes, her jewelry, and her taste. What a shabby trade-off for the throne.

W.E. dopily alternates between Cornish’s sexual and emotional awakening at the hands of a poetry-reading, piano-playing security guard (Oscar Isaac) and the courtship between Simpson and her self-sacrificing royal soulmate (James D’Arcy, who has the vaguely inbred quality of many royals). Simpson and Edward fall in love via montage sequences and share a bond rooted in elegant clothing, expensive gifts, expertly made martinis and Edward’s love of Simpson’s dancing: When Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant” anachronistically accompanies a Benzedrine-fueled interracial dance freak-out, the song selection feels like a dead-on self-critique.

The movie's climax (and it is handled well) comes at a formal dinner party when Wallis calls King Edward "David," his semi-secret family name; of course she shouldn't know it and still less should a commoner use it on familiar terms in a reprimand. The king had ripped her dress by catching it under the leg of his chair, and what delicious irony that their great public scene should be inspired by her fashionable clothing.

For me, I really hope people watch it with an open mind and forget Madonna directed it. At least until the credits roll and her new song Masterpiece begins and you remember why we love Madonna in the first place. Her music is profound and the song Masterpiece is a beautiful closer to the film. I will be buying this film for my DVD box set collection. It's worth it.